Katie Couric Thinks Cougar Label Is "Stupid"

Sure, Katie Couric may be dating a younger guy, but don't go calling her a cougar.

"I just find it stupid, you know?" the CBS Evening News anchor, 53, says in the March issue of Harper's Bazaarwhen asked about the label. "I think it also surmises that the older woman is always the pursuer. That's not necessarily true. I always say that maybe the older woman is the prey and someone else is the predator. It's just silly."

Even though NYC entrepreneur Brooks Perlin was 32 when he began dating Couric, she says the 17-year age is not a problem. "Except for, um, you know, he's never been married and he doesn't have children," she says.

She says it's hard being a single mother to daughters Ellie, 18, and Carrie, 14 (Couric's husband, attorney and NBC News legal analyst Jay Monahan, died of colon cancer at age 42).

"There are times, quite frankly, when as a single mom, you feel very alone," she tells the magazine. "Ellie was sick after Thanksgiving with a virus and strep. She had a 105 fever, and it was really terrifying. I was running around looking for a thermometer in my building at 11:30 at night, and I was getting a fan, and my doctor said, 'You should put her in a tepid bath,' and she was all bundled up, and her temperature wasn't going down, and she was shaking because she was so cold."